Higher education teaching career advice
Greetings Tildeans!
I am wrapping up my Ph.D. and am pursuing a teaching-focused career in higher education. I am currently in talks for a 4-year institution teaching faculty position that would revolve around teaching a subject I am passionate about and could provide a lot of intellectual stimulation. Unless something wild happens the offer is there and we are just negotiating the parameters. I also have a position that is in 2nd-phase interviews for a community college tenure track position that would be teaching general biology, anatomy, and physiology. I feel optimistic that they are going to offer me a position, but nothing is concrete yet.
I'm at this impasse because both have really good reasons for doing them and would provide experiences unique from the other. I am trying to balance the pros and cons between these two positions and consider what might be good for my career in the long run, and so I was hoping I could get some advice. Even if you're not in academia I think it would be helpful to get some outside prospective. I'm gonna list my thoughts on it below.
4-year University
Pros:
-Teach upper level and domain specific courses with opportunity to design courses I am passionate about.
-Integrated into scientific community if I want to to do more research/keep abreast of scientific advancements.
-Great community of teaching faculty with lots of support.
-Could be good curriculum vitae experience if I want to stay teaching at a 4-year institution, and could open up teaching psychology courses.
-Option to develop a community outreach project I am passionate about, not sure if there is support for me but there is infrastructure there.
-Partner's family is in the area, and it is a big metropolitan area with lots to do.
-Can get tuition at 25% cost for my partner and I incase we want to get some other degrees.
Cons:
-Pay is not great (does have option of picking up extra summer online classes to earn more).
-My partner and I don't want to live here long term, primarily because of climate, and cost of living is increasing. We are already ready to move, but this is a good opportunity.
-Is contract based, so not as much job security. Having said that, many of the teaching faculty have been there a long time and it seems like the student body for this department is generally growing.
Community College
Pros:
-Pay is pretty good, and there is a baked in growth of salary as long as you stay there long term. Pay could be as much as $15K more starting out than the 4-year institution.
-Small class sizes, so better teacher:student ratio means more involved education.
-Cost of living in the area is pretty cheap (so far).
-Beautiful area and would put us closer to a part of the country we would like to live in long term.
-I do like biology and physiology, just not as much as neuroscience.
-From my understanding there is lot of support and easy options to get into administration if so desired. All the faculty I briefly met had been there at least 7 years.
Cons:
-Only lower levels courses, with little room to develop new ones.
-Not sure how this would impact my ability to switch to a 4-year institution if I end up craving that intellectual stimulation.
-The area is in a part of California that does have issues with forest fires (not the town proper), and the county swings hard in the opposite direction of my politics.
-Small town so there isn't as much to do.
Overall, the community college looks best on paper. We're not planning on having kids so family support isn't as big of a deal. My main concern is if I could switch back to a 4-year institution if I feel like I'm missing something. So if anyone has any thoughts please let me know, in particular if there are other things I'm not considering that you think are worth examining.
Edit: Just to add some additional information. As part of making myself a good candidate for higher education, I have worked as a teaching assistant for several courses during grad school and I have taught online physiology as an adjunct professor at a community college, so I have some experience in both environments.
Thanks ahead of time!
A few things jump out at me:
Sorry to run, but I can answer any follow up questions later. Multiple decades of experience in higher ed, so happy to share.
Best of luck!
Fortunately the cost of living is very cheap in this area. The only thing I am worried about is home insurance down the line with the likely increase of forest fires.
I do share your intuition that it would be harder to move from CC to uni, but also many universities are developing teaching faculty positions so I hope that would reflect to a more favorable view of CC faculty.
I certainly agree that the fun is through the interaction with the students. The best part of teaching is helping a student "get" a concept.
Yeah, you know yourself better, but I know that being able to do research is the draw for professors at universities. Teaching an intro class may be interesting for a while, but it seems like it would get a bit tedious once it's not new to you anymore. I feel like right after school, you can get burnt out on learning new things, but if you really enjoy learning, I imagine the desire will come back to you later on.
I don't know about how academia works all too well, but I imagine it's much harder to get back into a university position if you have stagnated on research for a few years.
I'm not sure I can offer too much advice -- but, in the grand scheme of things, what are your career goals? If you want a stable job and to potentially move into administration, the community college could be a good fit. If you want to advance your research or potentially move to an R1 university, the 4 year college may be the better fit.
One thing I don't see mention of anywhere, unless I'm missing it -- is the 4 year college offer for a tenure track position? How long is the contract for otherwise?
Have you taught before, and have you taught at a community college before?
I taught freshman comp in grad school and then adjuncted for a semester at a very well regarded community college in the same city for a semester after. In my experience, and from the accounts I've heard from friends who also taught at the same schools, the difference was night and day.
My long term career goals are primarily teaching focused. I'm not entirely opposed to doing research down the line, but this would likely be at small, liberal arts college or working with other principal investigators. I don't have any interest in managing a large lab at an R1.
The 4 year position does not offer tenure. It looks like it's a renewable contract on a yearly basis, but I should get confirmation if there are extended contracts that go beyond a year. I will say that several of the teaching faculty in this department have been there for over a decade, so it seems like there is decent job security as long as you are doing a good job.
I have taught as a teaching assistant at this university, and I have been adjuncting online at a community college, so I have some experience with both settings. They are definitely very different, both in terms of the student demographics and incoming education level, among other things, that's for sure.
One reason that I would be careful about taking a contract job is that there is a widespread prediction of declining enrollment over the next ten to twenty years due to declining population of young people. There is likely to be significant pressure on university hiring and competition between universities for students. Some institutions may close.
That enrollment cliff is coming sooner rather than later too. In a year or two numbers of high school seniors start to drop.
Very good point, thank you for bringing that up.
I have taught at both community college and large 4-year university. However, (though I love teaching) my primary career focus is research. So the university route was a no-brainer in my case. It looks like you have done a thorough and responsible job of acquiring and comparing the hard data. I cant think of much that you haven't considered especially since you have some experience in both types of institution. At that point, it really comes down to heart stuff. Can you feel an inward tug? Does your partner have a strong leaning? If one of the opportunities was suddenly unavailable, which one would hurt more to lose? Of course I cannot predict the future or outcomes of specific scenarios, but my sense is that the CC work shouldn't lock you out of university opportunities in the future. When evaluating faculty recruits at my university, a stint in community college just makes me think, this person is passionate about teaching. Also, although the decision feels enormous, ultimately if it doesn't work out like you thought, you can change almost certainly change course with out much loss. Best of luck, I am pulling for you!
The more I mull it over the more I'm pulled towards the community college route. A lot of the opportunity and growth seem great, as well as the work-life balance. The only real thing that tugs me the other way is the option to teach neuroscience. Regarding your third question, that's a good question. I'll have to think on it a bit more, maybe do the coin toss and see what my gut reaction is. My partner definitely wants to escape the area we're currently at. We're in Phoenix and we're both pretty much done with the summers.
It's great to hear you perspective that people reviewing applicants might view someone coming from a community college as passionate about education - that's the main thing I want to convey. And I appreciate the support and the reminder that none of this is permanent. It's easy for me to view a lot of these things as fixed rails that make it hard to switch between, but life rarely is ever that set in stone. Thanks so much!
One related item worth considering is what your lifestyle will look like in a new place. Alongside the pros and cons list for each job, consider also developing one for each city. This is the obvious stuff like cost of living, commute time and climate, but also what community life looks like, who you know in the city, political leanings of the area etc.
Yeah that's one I've been conscious of. I will get the chance to explore the local community next week and get a better feel for it, but I know it has a reputation for leaning pretty far one way.
Whatever way that is, I hope that you're able to manage the "passion" of your colleagues 😅 (or whatever they call it)
I would generally lean toward accepting a permanent job over a contract job. How long are you willing to wait in contract based limbo while actively hunting a tenure track position related to neuroscience? Does the contract job offer you the scheduling freedom to go travel, participate in interviews and do conference presentations related to networking and getting hired for a tenure track position?
Is your interest in neuroscience strong enough that you would choose that option even if the job opportunity was somewhere extremely remote?
There are many adjuncts who feel trapped and more who accept real economic and social hardship because they love teaching their subject enough to make that choice. I would not work as an adjunct under any circumstances, but I am not a writer, an artist, an athelete, an actor, a dancer, a musician or an academic. Some people value their specific career interest above all else. But speaking generally adjuncts are exploited.
At the very least, the uni position isn't adjunct. It sounds like they have a lot of support and have good benefits and a role in the university culture, but as you point out it is contract based and that means in theory I could be let go any year.
Giving it more thought, I think I would only pick a uni job teaching neuroscience if it was somewhere I really wanted to live, because it seems like in most cases I'd be taking a pay-cut from this community college position. Thanks for providing your perspective, it's really helpful.
Something worth looking into - in some states (AZ recently becoming one, and I think CO has been this way for a while), community colleges offer 4 year degrees. The per-credit cost is higher for students in the upper level courses, so I would hope the instructor pay is higher as well.
I'm not sure how much of a difference this makes on your decision, but I just wanted to share that. As a current student, being able to go from having an A.S. degree years ago to a B.S. with only a couple years of work and community college prices, it's hopefully going to help me achieve my career goals.
Oh that is a good point. This community College does have one bachelor's program so far, so there might be options for developing more down the line!
Good luck on your education journey!
What was your motivation for getting your PhD? I always heard that you get your PhD not because it is the best move financially, but because it's something that you feel you can't live without.
If I were to get a PhD it would be because I loved the subject I studied and wanted to learn more and gain knowledge that only research could tell me. PhDs take a long time to get, so your motivations can shift over that time, but you just finished making a huge investment into a specific field of study.
What motivates you now? Do you want to rededicate yourself to your field and keep pushing the boundaries of human knowledge, or do you want to help educate the next generation and inspire them to go further?
The community college track seems like it would be more towards inspiring the future generation and you would be able to enter a career there at basically the top of the pack. The university would definitely be entry level, but much more room for growth as an educator or a researcher.
Edit: Also, try looking at the background of the other professors at the community college. I bet you will find they may have worked in the private sector or universities before they came there. Community colleges are only expanding, so I bet there would be another spot for you at some CC if you did something else first.
The primary motivation has always been to teach. I was inspired by some amazing professors during my undergraduate years and it really put me on track to work in higher education. I knew that involved getting a graduate degree of some kind, and Ph.D. generally has better salary trajectories. Going into the graduate degree I assumed I would have to do research of some kind and thought that I might like it from time spent working as a lab technician. As I learned more of the realities of becoming a principal investigator I realized I was much more interested and suited towards just doing the teaching.
I know that part of me is just burnt out from research due to the unique stressors of being a grad student. Many of my colleagues that have finished have mentioned how much more enjoyable the research is during a post-doc. So I might be a little too close to the stress of everything to really say how I feel down the line. But the nice thing is that it's not unheard of for teaching faculty, whether it's at university or community college, to collaborate with research faculty on projects. And fortunately, my field is relatively cheap to do anywhere with very little oversights boards.
I would certainly make more money going into the private sector first, and I have considered it. I learned a lot about how my mind works during grad school. One of the things I found out was that I have ADHD which was manifesting in being in an absolute rut when it came to things like data entry and writing, especially if I'm not medicated. It just feels like such a slog that I have to force myself to get through. But I don't really have that resistance when it comes to teaching, even some of the more mundane things like grading papers. So it kind of just feels right, y'know?
But thank you for putting all these questions out there. It's helping me a lot to consider them and what they mean to me!
I think I can relate a bit on the academic burnout except on a lower education level. After I finished my undergraduate degree, I was so exhausted that I really just wanted to find something easy and simple that paid well. I have done that for the past 3 years and have made my way into a field that pays me decently and has opportunity for growth, but it's just not challenging to me. I want to encounter new problems that I get to solve creatively, and my current job is very administrative.
I also was diagnosed with ADHD and getting medicated has helped me a lot. Not feeling like I'm drowning trying to complete mundane tasks has helped me realize that I need more mental stimulation than what my current path will ever offer me. I just feel like after getting used to my new medication that I have more potential to learn deeply and contribute directly towards solving problems.
I am actually going back to school this fall to take a few years of prerequisite classes to enter into a master's program for a STEM field that I was always very interested in but that I didn't feel capable of learning before.
My excitement for education may be adding bias to my advice for you, but I would just suspect that if you were excited enough about education to get a PhD and love sharing knowledge with others, you will eventually want to keep learning new things. Even if you need a break, I would definitely consider choosing a path that will allow you to make a final decision in a few years.
I definitely feel you on a lot of this. I definitely have a yearning to be a life-long learner, and I joke with my dad that I think he has weaponized ADHD because he has 3 bachelor's degrees and 2 masters and is working on a history Ph.D. The nice thing with working in an academic environment is that I have access to cheap in-house tuition. I may not be able to get super deep when it comes to topics at the community college, but I can get a decent amount of breadth to keep things fresh. Additionally, more and more institutions are developing online programs so I have the option to weaponize my ADHD :)
Thanks for the discussion. As long as you have some good scheduling habits I think a masters will be a breeze for you. The hard part of the graduate degree was holding myself accountable to finishing experiments - the coursework was so much fun that I really threw myself at it.
One thing that I would suggest you consider is the type of student you would be instructing. A friend of mine recently started a teaching position at a small 4 year college in our state after having similar background to you, also teaching Bio and Bio related courses. For him one thing that has posed a challenge is that at the new institution he is teaching primarily nursing and other med focused students who are just needing to knock out a requirement and have little interest in the subject, and frankly what from I hear are not great students.
I am not sure how wide a range of teaching you had during graduate school but the atmosphere of the institution and level/seriousness of the students can make it much more or less enjoyable. If you can, try to do some check ups on that when deciding between the two choices.
That is a pretty common experience across biology courses since they're often prerequisites for a medical degree program, so it's not a foreign thing to me. In my experience, there is usually at least one student that is super motivated to learn. It might be for extrinsic reasons but they still put in the work and get excited.
The funny thing is that the most excited students I've had were incarcerated people. There are obviously lots of reasons why they would take a biology course, but the majority of them genuinely loved being in the classroom.